Having no Wi-Fi connection can jeopardize hotels, inns, and B&Bs' chances of being picked by potential guests, like srsly. I would bet my precious little (and imaginary) tiara that it is one of the first things that a considerable number of Pinoy bakasyonistas would look for when browsing a hotel's website. Whether we admit it or not, we always like to update our social media profiles with our whereabouts and be constantly connected to the virtual world. We like bringing our smartphones, tablets and laptops when we go out of town and we love defeating the purpose of taking a vacation. Yes? Does this look familiar or what: "Just finished island hopping here in Boracay. Best day everrr! #summer #islandhopping #boracay #bora2013 #swimsuit #ootd #tanline."

source: www.roberthutchinson.com

That's probably one of the reasons why products that promise fast Internet connection on the go are a big hit among Pinoys. Let's just take a moment to thank the heavens for tech geniuses and marketing strategists for creating a need - *drum roll please* - the mobile internet. Gone are the days of having to wait for your vacation to end so you could upload awesome pictures from your epic getaway using your home computer. Or having to hear your manager disapprove your vacation leave just because no other person was willing to back you up (fvck them). Now, with just the ever trusty laptop and mobile broadband, anyone can take a vacation leave and finish the day's deliverables at the same time (although quite honestly, it still sucks to do some work while on vacay).

Okay, ang haba ng segue! :))) I had to do that pa because this is primarily a travel blog so I felt that this post needed to be justified. Hihi. All I want to say is that I got the new Globe Broadband Tattoo stick last October and want to share my experience so far. (Travel..laptop..mobile broadband...related naman, right? :))

The Results: Better Than Expected

I was a satisfied SmartBro user but was forced to cut it because I moved to a different address where there's already a PLDT myDSL installed. I haven't had any problems with both providers' speed and didn't even consider changing lines until the last week of September when I had to choose a mobile broadband plan as required by my new job. I was leaning toward getting either SmartBro's Pocket Wi-Fi or PLDT's WeRoam stick but in the end was enticed by Globe's Samsung Duos + Samsung Tab 3 bundle free at Plan999 . What can I say, I'm a gadget whore. So I applied for an unlimited data plan (Php999/month) and bought a Tattoo 4G Flash stick (Php995) with advertised speeds up to 7.2mbps, but I was already preparing myself to experience slow connection using this stick because I know how effed up the Internet generally is here in the Philippines.

I was pleasantly surprised though when the speedometer on speedtest.net hit the 7mbps mark (that's the first thing that I did when I got the device). Like ehmergherd. I couldn't believe my eyes so I told myself that I needed to test if this was just an initial speed or what. So on October 5, Saturday, I tested the speed of the Globe Tattoo stick at specific hours of the day and the results were satisfactory. Actually, I didn't need to go to speedtest because I was browsing the net with ease and watching Youtube videos without having to wait for them to fully load. Below are the results of my one-day test.

Dependability & Consistency

Because I can be a cynical bitch sometimes, I was thinking that the speed would slow down after a week or two (based on some reviews). Thankfully, the speed that the Globe Tattoo stick is giving me two months after I got it is still averaging 4 to 5mbps, which is pretty fast and better than most providers. Then again, it is very location-dependent. I'm just lucky that I live in a place where signal strength is good (Quezon City). I heard from others though that there are certain 'dead spots' for Globe where subscribers can barely log-in to Facebook and need to wait for a full 30 seconds for the Google search results page to load. There's just one thing that I noticed, though: the Tattoo stick needs about a few minutes to 'warm up' and hit a stable speed.

Now the real test would be when I go out of town and use it to check work-related emails (ugh). I read from several forums that Smart has wider and better coverage nationwide but Globe beats them in Metro Manila. In general and so far, the Globe Tattoo stick has been living up to my expectations. :)